10 Years of Super PACs Show Courts Were Wrong on Corruption Risks
"Charles Koch, Liberal Crusader? Dare to declare capitalism dead – before it takes us all down with it This article is more than 2 years old George Monbiot "" He’s one of the left’s biggest bogeymen. Now he’s teaming up with George Soros. By MICHAEL HIRSH March/April 2015 [...]The vast apparatus of foundations, advocacy groups, corporations and think tanks that Koch oversees and supports—what his critics darkly call the “Kochtopus”—was busy this winter launching programs and initiatives aimed at reeling in the worst excesses of one of the few industries larger than his own: the criminal justice-industrial complex. Koch had decided to help pull together a new coalition .. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/19/us/politics/unlikely-cause-unites-the-left-and-the-right-justice-reform.html .. of left-right advocacy groups in Washington, including the Hillary Clinton-aligned Center for American Progress, to fight what he calls the “overcriminalization of America.” He was underwriting a documentary screening at the Newseum about Weldon Angelos, a marijuana dealer serving a 55-year sentence that even Angelos’ judge called “unjust” and “cruel”—and helping to train attorneys to aid poor people across the country. In March, Koch’s general counsel, Mark Holden, plans to join with Van Jones, a former Obama administration official who took the liberal side on CNN’s since-canceled “Crossfire,” in mounting the #Cut50 Bipartisan Summit .. http://www.cut50summit.org/uploads/4/4/0/5/44056097/sponsorship_deck.pdf , which will explore strategies for reducing America’s incarcerated population by 50 percent over the next 10 years. (Jones’s old CNN adversary, Newt Gingrich, is also involved.) [yet more free market's invisible hand doing God's work: --- Private Prisons Spend Millions On Lobbying To Put More People In Jail June, 2011 - https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=64627607] A passionate prairie libertarian who as a young man reportedly wouldn’t permit a friend to bring an Ernest Hemingway novel into his house because “ Hemingway was a communist .."
It’s been a decade since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling led to a lower court decision that created the super-PAC monster that gives the wealthy undue influence over politics.
Congress is on the brink of passing the biggest stimulus bill in history. The last time there was legislation like this, super PACs didn’t exist. Today, the campaign finance regulation system is in far worse shape, and wealthy donors can use their influence to try to obtain big payouts from the government.
The law limits the amount one individual can donate directly to a campaign, in part because of fears that that type of transaction could lead to corruption. But wealthy donors are still able to exert immense influence over our political process, thanks in part to a federal appeals court decision 10 years ago this month that was based on the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling .. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/citizens-united-explained .
In SpeechNow v. Federal Election Commission, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals required the FEC to allow organizations to register as “independent expenditure only committees,” a status that lets groups raise unlimited money from donors. Millionaires, billionaires, and corporations skirt individual limits by donating to these groups, which we now know as super PACs.
The groups — which are often staffed by former employees of the candidates — throw their money and resources behind candidates or political causes favored by the wealthy donors. The process drowns out the voices of regular voters, giving the superrich a level of access to and influence over the political process that’s impossible for the vast majority of Americans to obtain. Examples abound over the last decade.
The most recent high-profile one involves Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two Ukrainian-American businessmen who used large contributions to a pro-Trump super PAC to get facetime with the president. They took the opportunity to advocate .. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/25/us/politics/trump-ukraine-donors.html .. for the ouster of the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, a move they viewed as benefiting their own interests and those of another Ukrainian government official.
Or there’s the case of Jose Susumo Azano Matsura, a Mexican businessman interested in building a waterfront development in San Diego. He was convicted in 2016 of funneling $500,000 in illegal foreign money into a San Diego mayoral race to gain support for the project, using a shell company and super PAC .. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-feds-say-azano-wanted-to-buy-a-mayor-2016jul27-story.html .. to disguise the foreign source of much of the funds.
And just this month, North Carolina insurance magnate Greg Lindberg was convicted .. https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article240808661.html .. of attempting to bribe the state insurance commissioner to replace an official who was investigating a company Lindberg owned. The lion’s share of the payments — $1.5 million — went through a super PAC Lindberg had created for the purpose. He was caught on tape .. https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article241043236.html .. explaining how his donations to a super PAC would benefit the insurance commissioner’s campaign.
There are also cases where the influence of super PAC money was not outright illegal but has an appearance of corruption nonetheless.
Fortunately, powerful reform options are available. The key is public financing,which empowers regular people and the candidates they support to run competitive campaigns without seeking super PAC help. These programs match and multiply small donations with public funds, so that $50 from a constituent becomes worth $350 to the candidate, for example. The idea is not to eliminate big super PAC money, but to give candidates not supported by wealthy donors the resources to compete for office.
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